Several Bengali migrant workers were detained in Rajasthan; released after CM intervened

A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the BJP-ruled Rajasthan government for illegally detaining nearly 400 Bengali speaking migrant workers — including several from West Bengal and Assam — under allegations of being Bangladeshi nationals, the Bhajan Lal Sharma government released all the workers today.

The workers, hailing predominantly from Itahar in Uttar Dinajpur district and surrounding villages, had been detained despite possessing valid documents proving their Indian citizenship. The incident sparked widespread concern and drew sharp criticism from Banerjee, who accused the BJP-ruled Rajasthan government of unjust profiling based solely on language.

The issue came to the surface on Tuesday, during the final day of the monsoon session of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, when Trinamool Congress MLA from Itahar, Mosarraf Hossain, brought the matter to the Chief Minister’s attention. Mamata Banerjee summoned chief secretary Manoj Pant and directed him to speak to his Rajasthan counterpart, Sudhanshu Pant, to ensure the workers’ swift release.

This cannot be allowed to continue, the Chief Minister said, later vowing to take the matter up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I don’t know if the Prime Minister is aware of this matter, but his party’s government is responsible for this”, she said, pointing fingers at the BJP for what she described as systemic harassment of Bengali-speaking citizens in states under their governance.

In a fiery address in the Assembly, Banerjee accused BJP-ruled states of targeting Bengali speakers. “Is speaking Bengali a crime? Should Tamil-speaking people be sent to Sri Lanka or Nepali-speaking people to Nepal?” she asked, denouncing the trend of equating linguistic identity with foreign origin. She also drew parallels with a similar episode in Maharashtra, where three Bengali migrant labourers were wrongfully deported to Bangladesh and later brought back after a flag meeting, following her government’s intervention.

“Nearly 1.5 crore migrant workers from other states live and work in Bengal, and we treat them with dignity”, Banerjee said. “But our own people are being persecuted elsewhere. This cannot go unchallenged”. The Chief Minister had assured on Tuesday that her government would provide all necessary support to the workers and said the matter would not be laid to rest quietly. “We will organise protests to highlight this injustice,” she had warned.

Team Maverick